Santa needs 23,219 little helpers to cover Christmas

A new study from job search engine Adzuna.co.uk has revealed over 23,000 Christmas jobs are currently available in the UK. The findings reveal despite recent shop closures and Britain’s prevailing concern for the high street, the sector is still stocking up on extra help to assist with the Christmas rush, with 17 percent of Christmas vacancies in the retail industry (2,761) and 8 percent in sales (1,297). Andrew Hunter, Co-Founder – Adzuna.

Among some of the big names like Tesco, Superdrug and Debenhams there are some new, and perhaps unusual, retailers like Topps Tiles making the top 10 employers seeking additional support for the festive season. One of the most interesting Tesco roles on offer is “Christmas Colleague”, offering personal Christmas shopper help to customers in their stores.

Online retailers are also searching for extra staff this winter, amounting to thousands of temporary, part-time roles flooding the market. In fact, 21 percent of Christmas jobs waiting to be filled are categorised by those in the logistics and warehouse industry (3,486), delivering these online sales.

Topping the list of companies still looking for Christmas staff this year are The Card Factory, Pizza Hut and Hermes, with 1,513 open positions available as of the 28th November between these three companies alone. These are closely followed by the likes of Debenhams and Argos.

London and the South East are vacancy hotspots, accumulating over 8,500 available jobs across the UK; offering an average pay of £14.25 per hour in London and £11.60 per hour in the South East.

This Christmas period brings with it some extremely lucrative opportunities, an Out of Hours GP could demand an impressive £120 per hour this December. At the other end of the spectrum, Christmas production operatives and tireless bar staff remain among the worst paid, just surpassing minimum wage at £6.79 per hour. Surprisingly, waiters in pizza restaurants make the five worst paid Christmas jobs, even though Pizza Hut is a top seasonal employer.

Andrew Hunter, Co-Founder of Adzuna, commented, “At a time when many fear the decline of the high street, it is comforting to see so many high street retailers still seeking staff for the Christmas rush, which will no doubt support slumping month-on-month sales. Whilst the bulk of vacancies lie in retail, delivery, and hospitality industries, it’s fantastic to see many specialist and skilled industries are offering a real premium for employees over the festive break. Even those without medicine degrees or doctorates from Le Cordon Bleu can seek out some fun ways to rake in cash over the festive break with whacky jobs such as ‘Head Elf’ and ‘Mince Pie Taster’.”

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